The Debate Over Majority Rule in Revolutionary Britain

Since at least the 1980s, intellectual historians and political theorists have recognized seventeenth-century Britain as the site of an “adversary revolution” in political thinking that had momentous consequences for the shaping of modern political thought. The quintessential expression of this revolution, understood as a rejection of consensual politics, was the endorsement of majoritarian decision-making. And yet the debates over majoritarian decision-making that occurred in seventeenth-century Britain remain almost entirely unstudied, despite involving nearly all the major political writers of the time. This talk will examine some of the particular discursive practices surrounding majority rule that emerged in Britain between the outbreak of the Civil War and the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution.

About the Speaker: William Bulman studies the political, religious, and intellectual history of Britain and its empire in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the broader global history of majority rule. His research has been supported by awards from the Mellon Foundation, the Templeton Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2015.